literature written in the Welsh language (see CELTIC LANGUAGES,). The earliest Welsh poetry is ascribed to Aneirin and Taliesin (fl. about 550), two 6th-century poets living in Welsh territory far north, in what is now part of Scotland. Their poems survive, greatly altered, in The Book of Aneirin and The Book of Taliesin, 13th-century manuscripts. The poems fall mainly into two categories: eulogies, which sing the praise of kings and heroes and elegies, which lament the ruin and desolation of the world and express longing for days gone by.

The first important prose work in Welsh was the 10th-century law code, The Laws of Hywel Dda. In the next century appeared “The Four Branches of the Mabinogi” (see MABINOGION,), a collection of four related tales, reflecting ancient myth and half-forgotten tradition, written down by an unknown author of exceptional skill. To these were added four independent native Welsh tales and three romances reimported from France: the latter, having originally gone to France from Wales, hold certain strands of the ARTHURIAN LEGEND, (q.v.). This material was first translated (1849) by Lady Charlotte Elizabeth Guest (1812–95) under the title The Mabinogion. An exemplary translation (1948) by the Welsh scholars Gwyn Jones (1907–    ) and Thomas Jones (1870–1955), which continues the misnomer Mabinogion as its title, has superseded all others.

The Bardic Guilds.

Meanwhile a school of court bards had arisen, organized in guilds that set precise standards for writing and reciting. Bardic rules were often ignored, however, and, despite a certain amount of conventional literature, poems of true genius appeared. Occasionally the bard was a prince and enjoyed great artistic freedom, as, for example, Owain Cyfeiliog (c. 1130–97), who wrote the Hirlas (The Long Gray Drinking Horn), a description of warriors celebrating a victory.

The Age of the Cywydd.

The conquest of Wales by King Edward I of England in the 13th century almost eradicated the bardic tradition. A revitalization of poetry occurred, however, with the work of Dafydd ap Gwilym (1320–80), foremost of all Welsh poets and one of the great poets of medieval Europe. Writing of nature, beauty, and love with both passion and humor, he used a flexible verse form called the cywydd. The cywydd reached its fruition in the works of such 15th-century poets as Lewis Glyn Cothi (fl. 1447–86) and Guto’r Glyn (fl. 1440–93).

Decline and Revival.

Between the 11th and the 16th centuries Welsh prose declined conspicuously, and from the 16th century on, most prose was religious and didactic. Noteworthy are the translation of the New Testament into Welsh (1567) by the scholar William Salesbury (c. 1520–84) and that of the whole Bible (1588) by Bishop William Morgan (c. 1545–1604); Morgan’s translation, as later amended (1620), is still the standard Welsh Bible. The period between the 16th and 18th centuries was one of decline in Welsh poetry, with many educated Welsh poets turning to English as their medium of expression. Although thousands of anonymous popular poems, including ballads, were written during this time, very few were of any great literary merit.

A literary renaissance occurred, however, in the 18th century, inspired in part by Goronwy Owen (1723–69), who revived the classical cywydd and composed polished verses in the manner of the English neoclassic poet Alexander Pope. Poetry in the so-called free forms, that is, in forms not written according to bardic meters, also began to flourish. Outstanding among a school of hymn writers were William Williams of Pantycelyn (1717–91) and the more mystical Ann Griffiths (1776–1805). Their work had great influence on early 19th-century secular poets, such as John Blackwell (1797–1840), the father of Welsh lyric verse; Ieuan Glan Geirionydd (1795–1855), who wrote nature poetry; and John Ceiriog Hughes (1832–87), considered the greatest 19th-century lyric poet. The English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, as a student in Wales in 1874–77, learned Welsh and was inspired to write several poems in the language.

The literary renaissance led to the reestablishment of the EISTEDDFOD (q.v.), or gathering at which contests of song and poetry were held; the great annual national eisteddfod was instituted in the 19th century. Toward the end of the century, the newly established (1893) University of Wales became a center for scholarly study of ancient Welsh texts.

Among 19th-century writers of nonfiction, Samuel Roberts (1800–85) became known as a political polemicist. The first important novelist in the Welsh language was Daniel Owen (1836–95), whose works are sometimes compared to the novels of Charles Dickens.

Modern Welsh Writers.

The 20th century brought a tremendous surge of literary activity and nationalist feeling in Wales. The poets Thomas Gwynn Jones (1871–1949) and Robert Williams Parry (1884–1956) produced distinguished poetry in the classic tradition, and William John Gruffydd (1881–1954) produced excellent work in the freer meters. Sir John Morris-Jones (1864–1929), a noted scholar but a true poet in temperament and inspiration, is celebrated for his “Salm i Famon” (A Psalm to Mannon), now regarded as a landmark in Welsh poetry because of its purity of diction and technically exact use of the classical meters. His lyrics, in the freer forms, are also practically unsurpassed in 20th-century Welsh poetry, as are his felicitous translations of poems from other languages. Using a simpler, more intimate style, Sir Thomas Herbert Parry-Williams (1887–1975) enriched Welsh poetic language and set the model for later poets who, like him, couch subtle thoughts in colloquialisms and everyday vocabulary. He usually employed simple metrical forms but excelled as well in the more rigid form of the sonnet. Parry-Williams is also considered by some critics the most eloquent and vigorous 20th-century Welsh essayist. Among the younger poets, Bobi Jones (1929–    ) is recognized as a master of both ancient and modern meters. He has a gift for transforming homely words and well-known expressions into strikingly new combinations, delighting and startling the ear and eye alike.

Twentieth-century Welsh prose has been equally reinvigorated. Short-story writers include Kate Roberts (1891–1985), widely regarded as the most profound and accomplished of all writers in the genre; D. J. Williams (1885–1969), also an essayist; and E. Tegla Davies (1880–1967). Among the finest novelists are T. Rowland Hughes (1903–49), Islwyn Ffowc Elis (1924–    ), and Saunders Lewis (1893–1985), who was also a playwright of distinction. Another important dramatist is J. Gwilym Jones (1904–    ).

It should be noted that an impressive number of Welsh-born writers are successful authors in English; for example, the playwright and actor Emlyn Williams (1905–87), author of Night Must Fall (1935) and The Corn Is Green (1938); and Dylan Thomas, the renowned lyric poet and short-story writer. The continued existence of Welsh literature, however, is inevitably bound to the fate of the Welsh language.